Name: Green Tomato Pickle
Ingredients: 2 gallons green tomatoes, sliced without peeling; 12 good-size onions, sliced; 2 quarts vinegar; 1 quart sugar; 2 tablespoons salt; 2 tablespoons ground mustard; 2 tablespoons black pepper; 1 tablespoon allspice; 1 tablespoon cloves

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, stew the sliced green tomatoes and onions until tender.
Add the vinegar, sugar, salt, ground mustard, black pepper, allspice, and cloves, stir well and bring to a boil.
Put the mixture into small jars while hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,928 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes: Provide the bulk of the pickle and, once stewed, its soft, tender texture.
Onions: Add savoury sweetness and body that softens into the pickle as it stews.
Vinegar: Supplies the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the pickle.

The step that matters

Stewing the tomatoes and onions until tender. Stewing softens the tomatoes and onions so they absorb the vinegar and spices. Stopping early leaves firm, raw-tasting pieces that do not blend into the pickle.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, allspice, clove):

Horseradishfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, allspice, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Green Tomato Pickle